Baccalaureate Mass 2026

Jesuit president Fr. Vincent Giacabazi, S.J. celebrated Baccalaureate Mass for the Class of 2026 on Thursday (May 21) evening in the beautiful Chapel of the Holy Cross on campus.

It was a special night and a wonderful Mass for the 217 soon-to-be graduates (graduation is the next night, May 22, at 8:00pm at the Straz Center downtown) and their families, as the seniors came together one final time for Mass inside the grand chapel.

(Click to view a video from Baccalaureate Mass.)

The class is pictured on the homepage on the steps of the chapel immediately after the Mass with Father Giacabazi, Fr. Ian Gibbons, S.J., Fr. James Lambert, S.J., Fr. Michael Wegenka, S.J., and Fr. Len Plazewski '81 . 

Baccalaureate Mass has long been a tradition at Jesuit (which was founded in 1899), and has been celebrated in the Chapel of the Holy Cross since 2019 except for 2020, when it was moved outdoors to Oliva Courtyard, adjacent to Holy Cross Chapel, due to the pandemic.

Sacred Heart Church in downtown Tampa was completed by the Jesuits in 1905, and Baccalaureate Mass was celebrated there for 51 consecutive years, from 1912 through 1962, and then also in 2017 and 2018 when Holy Cross Chapel was under construction. From 1963 through 2016, St. Anthony's Chapel on Jesuit's Himes Avenue campus – where the school had relocated from downtown Tampa in 1956 – hosted Baccalaureate Mass.

Several hundred family members and supporters attended Thursday's Mass, while Jesuit's musicians, under the direction of Adrian Quesada, provided a beautiful backdrop to the amazing event from high above in the chapel's choir loft.

View below photos from Baccalaureate Mass for the Class of 2026. For many more Baccalaureate Mass photos visit the Facebook page Jesuit High School of Tampa.